Security News > 2021 > April > Encrypted method that measures encounters could slow down or prevent future pandemics

As part of urgent efforts to fight COVID-19, a science is rapidly developing for measuring the number of encounters and the different levels of interaction in a group.

At the National Institute of Standards and Technology, researchers are applying that science to a concept they have created called "Encounter metrics." They have developed an encrypted method that can be applied to a device such as your phone to help with the ultimate goal of slowing down or preventing future pandemics.

This is what the researchers call an "Encounter ID." Peralta developed an encrypted system that uses encounter IDs to not only measure the encounter between two people but to strengthen the privacy of the identities of the two people from third parties.

The benefit of this method that uses encounter IDs is its promotion of privacy.

Researchers also propose an alternative protocol to current approaches for contact tracing using their method of encounter IDs.

Lastly, every day each person participating in contact tracing performs a two-party encrypted computation with the server to get the number of encounter IDs that are both in their list and the server's.

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